Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
A Spanish Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.
Add the beaten eggs, currants, wine and brandy mixture, rose water, and prepared flour, then mix until well combined.
Pour the batter into small tin pans of your preferred shape.
Bake and finish
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.
Ice the cakes after they have cooled.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,427 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Currant + rosetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together494 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cakes a tender, rich crumb.
- Sugar
- Creams with the butter and adds sweetness and gentle browning.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Prepared flour
- Provides the main structure that sets as the cakes bake.
- Currants
- Add sweetness, chewy texture and fruity pockets throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Creaming softens the butter and works air into the sugar crystals. This trapped air helps the cakes rise and gives a light, tender crumb, so under-beating leaves a dense result.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, wine, brandy, rose, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, wine, brandy, rose, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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